50:50 The Equality Project
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Description
The Project began as a grassroots initiative in the BBC’s London newsroom in 2017. It now involves 670 BBC teams and more than 100 partner organisations in 26 countries – all working towards one goal: equal representation of women and men in content.
In 2021, for the first time, the BBC’s progress was published alongside our 50:50 partner organisations.
In March, teams were challenged to see how many could reach 50% women contributors. Within the BBC, the challenge included how many could consistently meet 50:50 from October 2020 to March 2021.
In a year that saw the coronavirus pandemic have a devastating impact on lives and industries globally, the data suggested that achieving gender balance remained a priority for the global 50:50 network.
At the BBC, 70% of datasets featured 50% women contributors in March, compared to 36% when they first started. Forty percent also proved consistency.
Across the global 50:50 network, 41 organisations took part in the challenge. Half of the datasets submitted featured at least 50% women. All are committed to continue improving women’s representation in their output.
In October 2020, the BBC announced 50:50 monitoring was expanding to include representation of ethnicity and disability. This supports the Corporation’s aim to reach 50% women, 20% black, Asian and minority ethnic, and 12% disabled representation on-screen, on-air and in lead roles across all genres.
Over 220 teams across the BBC have now committed to using 50:50 monitoring to increase their representation of ethnic minority and disabled contributors.
This progress demonstrates a worldwide commitment to improving representation in content. It evidences how 50:50 is contributing to sustained culture change across the creative industries and beyond.
Over the long-term, the expected impact of 50:50 is equal representation of women on media content that is permanent. Organisations that take part in 50:50 will see their content begin to reflect the world we live in. Using the BBC as the example, a survey conducted by YouGov of 2,200 people who use any BBC online service found that 62% had noticed a shift towards more women in content than two years ago. In addition, 58% of women aged 16 to 34 say they now consume more BBC online content because of greater female representation. These statistics are important, as research from the Geena Davis Institute show that the more media represents women better the more likely women will consume that content. This is replicated for any under-served audience. If the media are not able to attract these audiences then important and vital information cannot be provided. It is something that the BBC and fellow public service broadcasters are acutely aware of with the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Therefore, ensuring media content is representative of society is crucial. It is not only crucial for public information purposes but also for creating a world of equality. As American children’s rights campaigner Marian Wright Edelman said: ‘You can’t be what you can’t see.’ An example of this was the Women’s Football World Cup in 2019. Its coverage saw a surge in the number of girls wanting to play football. Role-models are crucial when it comes to inspiring young people and it is the media that shows the next generation what they can be. Therefore, it is vital the media knows whether it is actually doing this. 50:50 provides that data which can help inform the media on how it can adapt and change to reflect society better. The media now holding itself to account through 50:50 has inspired others to do the same, including global players such as Unilever and PwC joining as partners. The more organisations that come board with 50:50 the more likely media content is to represent the world. The impact of that will be that everyone will be have access to the information and inspiration they need.
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- Africa
- Asia and Pacific
- Europe
- Global
- Latin America and the Caribbean
- North America
- West Asia
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